Scenes of Crime Officer

When a crime has been committed, and the first attending officer has determined that the scene is safe and clear of any potential suspect, then the Scenes of Crime Officer will enter the scene.The Scene of Crime Officers are in charge of the crime scene and determine who is allowed into the scene, an aspect is crucial to the investigation, as if anyone who is unauthorised gets into the scene, they could contaminate evidence, which could be detrimental towards an investigation. Another key aspect of the SOCO's job is to distinguish between important evidence and evidence will not aid the investigation. 

It is mainly their responsibility to locate, collect, preserve and then catalogue any and all evidence found at the crime scene. Once the evidence is located, then it will be photographed in context to show how the evidence was found, usually taken next to a scale to show its size. The Evidence is then collected and placed into an appropriate evidence collection bag, as these come in multiple sizes and materials. On this evidence bag, all of the information relevant to the evidence should be written on the bag, or on a tag attached to the evidence container. 

This information should contain, the evidence number(The initials of the SOCO who collected the evidence followed by a series of sequential numbers), a description of the evidence, whether the evidence is Physical, Chemical or Biological and where the evidence was collected from. This evidence can then be recorded down into the chain of custody so that the evidence is kept safe, and that should the evidence go missing, there is someone who can be held accountable. 

However, in order to efficiently do their job, there are a number of precautions and practices which must be put in place before entering the crime scene, and while working on the scene. For examples, all SOCO members must wear Personal Protection Equipment, to prevent contamination, both to the evidence and to themselves. This would include Gloves, a mask, and a full body suit. Another act of protection which must be but in place by the SOCO team is to establish a common approach path so that no evidence is being contaminated as the result of being stood on. 

The OJ Simpson Case

During the OJ Simpson case, there were a number of discrepancies regarding the Scene of Crime Officers, as not all of the procedures were done correctly or at all. First of all, there was no common approach path established by the SOCO team, leading to much of the biological evidence in the form of blood to be contaminated, as a mixture of the SOCO team and the police investigation team stepped in the two victims blood. 

One of the biggest blunders by the OJ Simpson SOCO team was the idea to place a blanket found within Nicole Brown Simpsons house, in order to cover the bodies of Nicole and Ron from the press; however, in doing so they managed to contaminate the entire bodies as evidence, as all traces of OJ found on the body, could then have arguably come from the blanket, as he had been in the house.